State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver – who single-handedly crushed Mayor Bloomberg’s dream of building a football stadium – yesterday accused City Hall of again taking its focus off lower Manhattan in favor of the West Side rail yards.

“Just as we’re getting lower Manhattan up and running, the city is shifting its attention to the Hudson Yards on the West Side and away from our downtown goal,” Silver, who represents downtown, told business leaders at a meeting of the Association for a Better New York.

Silver’s warnings come after the city and the MTA reached agreement to seek developers for the rail yard south of the Javits Convention Center.

The city envisions a new commercial district on the far West Side, including the rail yard, that would host 24 million square feet of office space, or nearly three times the amount of office space planned for the World Trade Center.

Silver, a Democrat who controls a seat on the powerful Public Authority Control Board, said the city’s priority should be rebuilding lower Manhattan “first and foremost.” (p. 4 Metro)